ESS262H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Barrier Island, Antarctic Circumpolar Current, Wind Wave
Document Summary
On an earth with no water, no clouds of condensed water vapor would obscure the surface, and there would be no vegetation cover on the land. Earth would appear as desolate as the rocky surface of the moon or mars. Seawater covers 70. 8% of earth"s surface: most water in 3 interconnected basins: pacific, atlantic, indian ocean w/ southern ocean = world ocean. Each owes its distinctive geography to plate tectonics leading to creation of numerous small basins. Land covers 29. 2% unevenly b/w the hemispheres: north hem: land hemisphere (46% land, 54% water, south hem: water hemisphere (12% land, 88% water) Before 20th century water depth: mapped using soundings w/ weighted hemp line or strong wire, long tedious process made few deep water measurements. In the 1920"s water depth: ship-borne acoustic instruments called echo sounders were developed, short process generated a pulse of sound that measured how long for echo to bounce, marie tharp!
